LANCE CORPORAL SYDNEY JAMES ARMSTRONG SAWYERS
AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY
7TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 24
BURIED: CONTAY BRITISH CEMETERY, FRANCE
This inscription has the ring of a letter of condolence from Sawyers' senior officer. However, unlike many letters, this sounds as though the officer actually knew Sawyers and recognised him to be a "bright, intelligent lad".
Sawyers' mother filled in the form for the Roll of Honour of Australia and she described him as a photographer who had also worked in "postal services". Other sites describe him as a miner. He lived in Norseman Western Australia, a gold mining town, so Sawyers certainly could at one time have been involved in the gold industry. He enlisted on 5 July 1915, embarked for Europe on 1 October that year and died of wounds just under a year later on 7 September 1915 at No. 49 Casualty Clearing Station, Contay.